Good morning! After a weekend of honoring the maternal figures in our lives, it’s fitting to start Monday off with a story about the family members preserving the artistic legacy of their mothers, grandmothers, and aunts. Hall Rockefeller spoke with three women who run their late relatives’ estates and sheds light on their under-appreciated but essential work.

Read on for a side-eye of an art collective that satirizes consumerism while profiting from it (yes, of course they’re based in Brooklyn), a remembrance of late American musician Steve Albini, and our visits to New York’s Independent and TEFAF art fairs. Also today, Michael Glover investigates a question I think it’s fair to say none of us saw coming: Why was a constipated racist art patron’s book buried in a London library?

— Lakshmi Rivera Amin, Associate Editor

Meet the Women Preserving the Legacies of Their Artist-Relatives

We owe the stories of Louise Nevelson, Tamara de Lempicka, and Anna Walinska to those behind the scenes working to preserve them.

Hall W. Rockefeller

A Tribute to Art and Motherhood

Artists and art workers reflect on the maternal figures in their lives, on being mothers, and on the many layers of a universally beloved and misunderstood figure.

Featuring contributions from Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Cecilia Vicuña, Michael Rakowitz, Hrag Vartanian, Sheila Pree Bright, Sharon Madanes, Gray Swartzel, Carmen Hermo, Curator, and María Sprowls-Cervantes.

Thomas Carlyle, a Chronically Constipated Racist

Hidden in the bowels of the London Library, a 19th-century pamphlet contains its founder’s most bigoted views.

Michael Glover

LATEST REVIEWS

The Critique-Profiteering Work of MSCHF

Combining the provocative spirit of internet trolling, clickbait scamming, and MTV’s Punk’d, the collective satirizes consumerism while making bank.

Sigourney Schultz

Something for Every Palate at The European Fine Art Fair

The fair may be geared toward the collector rather than the casual fairgoer, but its wild mix of genres makes it unique.

Alice Procter

When Will the Independent Art Fair Grow Up?

At Tribeca’s trendy Spring Studios, I found an art fair in denial.

Hakim Bishara

ALSO ON HYPERALLERGIC

Remembering Indie Rock Icon Steve Albini

Albini may be best known for his work on Nirvana’s In Utero, but it was his own bands, Big Black and Shellac, that made him a badass.

Natalie Haddad

OPPORTUNITIES

Oak Spring Garden Foundation – 2025 Eliza Moore Fellowship for Artistic Excellence

The fellowship will be awarded to an early-career artist working on projects that address plants, landscapes, or gardens. It includes a $10,000 grant and a two- to five-week stay at OSGF in Northern Virginia.
Deadline: May 31, 2024 | osgf.org

See more in this month’s list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers!

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